Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-07-14
Encouragement Concerning Rainfall
Drawn From. Experience.
NEED NOT FEAR CONTINUED
DROUTH.
Comparative Statement Of the Pre-
cipitation in Kansas and Tex
as-The Increase Regu-
Iar-RuIIngs Concern
ing Land on Fort
Reservations.

WASHINGTON, d. G. July I'm view of
the serious injury to crops in Kansas and
Texas during the last two years the fol-
lowing report, prepared by Professor H.
A. Hazen, Jr., will prove of great inter
est to people of that district:
..From month to month for more than
year reports have come in of a great
lack of rain and consequent drouth in
Kansas and Texas. In some instances
fears have been expressed lest there has
been entered upon period of more or
less permanent diminution in rainfall
for this region. A careful investigation
of this question was ordered by the chief
signal officer of the army, and has result
ed as follows:
The subject has already received at
tenton at the hands of c. A. Schott, who
decided in 1876 that up to that time there
had been a slow and steady increase of
precipitation since the earliest authentic
records which 90 back to about 1881 lie
also thought that probably the maximum
or turning point had been reached and
that there would be some diminution from
that time on.
In 1888 an investigation of this question
by the present writer showed diminu
ton of precipitation in 1879, but mark
ed increase for the three succeeding
years. In the fifth biennial report of the
Kansas state board of agricultural, page
116, there is paper entitled Studies OF
rainfall in Kansas, as affecting climate,
in which the writer, after a discussion OF
observations at Fort Lcavenworth since
1887, and at Lawrence and Manhattan for
shorter periods, says: Extremes follow
each other in regular sequence. We
have had no more than two or three dry
or wet years in succession. We may
fairly claim that climate is becoming
more and more favorable. We may eX-
pect in the future as in the past, wet sea-
sons and dry seasons. We find often that
these alternate year by year, and if the
change is not annual we have two, three
or four years of excessive rains followed
by an equal period when the rainfall is
below the average" A writer in the
Coast Review thinks that a more or less
severe drouth occurs every seven years In
the Missouri valley. He notes severe
drouth in 1860, and mild one in 1867, a
severe one in 1874, and one less severe in
1881. A comparison of the preclplta-
ton for these years with average for all
the wears shows that it was less. We
may conclude that, in general, marked
deficiency in precipitation in any year
has tendency to drought though this is
varied largely by the distribution of rain
and the temperature A less fall in Win
ter does not effect the crops if an average
amount fall during the growing season.
On comparison of the rainfall during
the growing season of of 1886, for Kan
sas and texas we find amarked deficiency
The rainfall for this year shows the fol
lowing deficiency: Omaha,-l3 inches
Leavenworth,-1 inches, Dodge City
inches; Fort Sill.-12 inches; Fort Davis,
90 inches; Galveston inches. 1t will
be understood that the deficiency OF
inches at Dodge City means more than the
same would at Leavenworth, as the to,
tai precipitation is only about one half at
the former as compared with the latter.
Instances of as small precipitation at
Leayenworth back to 1887. are as follows;
1S64.-19 inches; 1S60,-15 inches; 1o41,
ID inches: 1873 inches. Taking
the mean of each five years we find the
following values and defect or excess: